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A science teacher at Mancos High School is giving her students a global perspective on conservation while pursuing a master’s degree in biology.

Sensa Wolcott decided to enroll in the Global Field Program at Miami University in Ohio, which combines summer field courses with online learning, because it was “built around conservation,” she told The Journal over the phone.

She planned to go to Belize this summer, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented travel to the Central American country.

Instead, Wolcott took an online class with other biology graduate students across the U.S. The students developed a five-day online learning curriculum based on information from the Cheetah Conservation Fund, a research institution that studies Namibia’s cheetah population.

Wolcott and her colleagues used information from the Cheetah Conservation Fund’s textbook and “added our own twists,” she said.

“We took the importance of what zoos and conservation organizations are doing (in the U.S.),” Wolcott said.

Miami University works with a conservation organization in Thailand that “focuses on the spiritual connections you get from being outside in nature,” Wolcott said. In the U.S., people protect something when it has monetary value, she said.

Wolcott hopes to implement the curriculum into her courses at Mancos High School but is not sure when she can because of the switch to Colorado Digital Learning Solutions’ curriculum.

School districts across Colorado are using the CDLS curriculum in online and in-person classes during the pandemic.

In addition to teaching, Wolcott runs a ranch with her husband. She hopes to convey to her students the importance of conservation and biology in agriculture.

And through the master’s program with Miami University, Wolcott has made global connections in ranching and conservation.

For example, livestock owners in Namibia use guard dogs to protect their animals from cheetahs.

“We’re not talking about coyotes here,” Wolcott said.

ehayes@the-journal.com